


The Magic of Love

by LibbyWeasley



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Academy Era, F/M, Magic, Mutual Pining, Witchcraft, love spells
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 17:00:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21201047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LibbyWeasley/pseuds/LibbyWeasley
Summary: Jemma Simmons is a witch and is afraid Fitz is only interested in her because of a love potion gone wrong. Fitz hopes he can convince her otherwise.





	The Magic of Love

**Author's Note:**

> Written for @aosficnet2 Promptober day 27 - Witchcraft

Jemma checked her calculations one last time. You could never be too careful when it came to science — or magic for that matter. Ever since she was a child she had been fascinated by science and nature, and how all of the forces could be used together to solve unsolvable problems. There was a reason she was so good at chemistry. The way chemicals reacted just felt natural to her. She could feel it before she’d even understood the science behind it. 

Which was why it was extremely frustrating for her to have Milton as her lab partner in her second semester chem lab. Technically, she supposed he must be competent. He did get into the Academy after all. But they wouldn’t be solving any unsolvable problems together. They’d barely be completing their labs on time at this rate. 

“Would you titrate the solution?” she prompted, more than a little irritated by the puppy dog eyes he was giving her. 

“Yes, Dr. Simmons.”

The one good thing to come from all of this was the fact that he was more than willing to address her by her proper title, something that was hard to come by when you were an 18-year-old with two PhDs and a grimoire full of spells. 

She set up the next part of the experiment, keeping her eyes on Milton’s progress as she worked. But she couldn’t help her eyes from drifting over to the lab table across from where she was working. Her eyes met startlingly blue ones and a shock went through her. Leopoldo Fitz. She’d much rather be working with him. She didn’t know him very well, but everything she knew made her think they’d get on really well. They’d shared a few conversations and a few disagreements. She felt herself being drawn to him. And that was what concerned her. 

Jemma felt more for him than she felt for any of their other classmates, than anyone she ever met before. She wanted to know everything about him. She wanted to kiss him...and maybe she wanted quite a bit more than that. Which was not a normal reaction towards someone she barely knew. And unless it was all in her head, the looks he gave her seemed to indicate he had similar thoughts about her. 

And it just wasn’t worth the risk. Not now. Not when she was so close to following her dreams all the way into the field. She couldn’t do the things she was thinking about doing to him and not tell him that she was a witch. And she couldn’t tell him and risk him telling someone else. 

Which was why she was stuck with Milton. Turning back to her own lab table, she took the solution from Milton’s hand just as he was about to add it to the wrong beaker. She resolved to focus on her work and forget all about Leopold Fitz.

* * *

Forgetting about Fitz had proven to be all but impossible. Jemma threw herself into her work — her studies at the Academy as well as the spell modifications she was working on — in the obviously futile hope that her brain would be too busy to have time for thoughts of him. After months of working on the love potion spell, she thought she had finally found a way to turn it into more of a truth serum spell. In its original form it was intended to affect the emotions of the person exposed to it to make them believe they were in love. The modified version had a similar effect, and it had only taken her so long to complete the work because she’d had to research the chemical reactions and biological responses behind the potion. She couldn’t exactly propose magic to Dr. Weaver. Not if she didn’t want to get laughed out of the Academy.

She had just written up the final formulas when there was a knock on her door. Tucking her notes out of sight and pushing her grimoire back into the drawer before shutting it with a satisfying click, she stood to answer the door. 

Standing on the other side was the last person she expected to see. Fitz. 

“Hi, Fitz.” She couldn’t help the smile spreading over her face, though she wasn’t sure how long she could resist him if he was right here. “I wasn’t expecting to see you.”

“Jemma.” He looked uncertain, his voice low. “I-I...you’ve been avoiding me. I’m just not sure what I did wrong.”

Her smile faltered a little and she stepped back from the door to let him in. This wasn’t a conversation they should have in the hallway. She had been ignoring him, but not for whatever reason he thought. The more she thought about it, the more certain she was that she had only noticed his interest in her _after_ she started working on the love potion/truth serum. And she knew better than to get involved with her own spells. It was one of the first things she’d been taught by her mother. But it also wasn’t the sort of thing she could ask him about. 

He stepped into the room and she carefully shut the door, whispering a quick spell to make sure they wouldn’t be disturbed. 

She gestured towards her desk chair for him to sit and she perched on the edge of her bed. But rather than sit he started pacing back and forth. 

“I know I don’t know much about relationships, but it seemed like there was something between us. Maybe just friendship, but something. And then you completely disappeared...and I miss you and I just want to know what’s wrong. If it’s something I did, then I want the chance to fix it.”

Her heart squeezed. He sounded so hurt, and that wasn’t what she had wanted at all. She had only been trying to spare them that hurt. 

“It isn’t you, Fitz,” she finally said. “It’s me.”

He let out a harsh laugh and dragged a hand through his hair, messing up his curls. Jemma wanted to run her fingers through his hair. Just once. Just to know what it felt like. But then he started towards the door and she cleared her head of her ridiculous fantasies. 

“That’s alright, Simmons. I get it. You don’t have to say anything else.”

Reaching for his hand, she stopped him from leaving and they both stared at their joined hands. She could feel her magic running down her arm to her fingertips. To her surprise he seemed to be able to feel it too. 

“It really is me, Fitz.” She couldn’t just let him leave, hating her. Especially for something she didn’t do. Taking a deep breath, she blurted out, “I’m a witch.”

She watched his expression change from hurt to confused to angry. He didn’t believe her. 

“You don’t have to lie to me to make me feel better.”

“I’m not lying,” she said gently. She pushed her magic through her hand and onto his skin. 

“Ouch!” He pulled his hand away. “You shocked me. How did you do that?”

She just waited for him to eliminate all of the other possibilities and accept the truth. 

“But you...you…” He started to hyperventilate and she pushed him onto the bed and gently guided his head forward so he didn’t pass out. He sucked in a few shaky breaths but he didn’t pull away from her. Eventually he sat back up. 

“Better?” she asked with a smile, willing everything to be alright. Her mother would tell her to just make him forget, but she couldn’t bear it if she had to use magic on him...more than she maybe already had. 

“But why? Why does that mean you have to ignore me? Or am I really that uninteresting?”

Now he looked hurt again, which was the last thing she wanted. 

“No! I find you extremely interesting. And very attractive.”

“Then why?”

“I’m...afraid you may be suffering from the effects of a love potion. I have been working on some modifications that could be applied more scientifically and given your...interest in me, I think you may have been unintentionally exposed somehow. I’m so sorry.”

“Wha— That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Oh, I assure you it’s all quite real. It should wear off in another few weeks. Which is really too bad because I really do like you. Romantically, I mean...and sexually.”

Fitz’s face turned bright red and he sputtered. “That’s not...what I mean is— How would you have had time to cast a spell or whatever _before_ i was interested in you?”

She sighed. Even if he did believe her, it felt like this would all be over before it even began. Maybe she would have to make him forget after all. “Right before the end of first term —“

“The end of the term?” He snorted. “Try the first moment I saw you.”

“The first…” She looked at him in confusion. He really was the most puzzling man she’d ever met. “You wouldn’t even speak to me at first. That can’t be right:”

“I was nervous. Wanted to find the right thing to say to you.”

“Are you sure?”

“Course I am.”

Jemma licked her lips, suddenly feeling much lighter. “And you still like me? Romantically?”

He nodded his head quickly. “Yes.”

“Oh.”

If he’d liked her from the beginning, then it wasn’t her magic that was causing them to feel this way. And since he was so close already…

She leaned towards him and he met her halfway, their lips meeting in a sweet kiss that promised so much more. So she tried to deliver on that promise, pushing her tongue against his lips as his arms came around her. He was so warm and her magic sparked all over her skin as he touched her. 

Without any barriers between them, and a locked door keeping the rest of the world out, they were free to explore each other. Hands slid beneath clothes until Jemma broke contact with him to remove the last thing still between them. 

Later, as she lay in his arms, she couldn’t help thinking that love was the best magic of all.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! I'd love to hear from you :)


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